We have taken a lot of long trips with our son beginning when he was three months old. Many of our trips were from Texas to the midwest, a fifteen hour drive. Our biggest concern was how our son would handle such a long trip at such a young age. Thinking ahead, I knew that my cluster feeder would need to nurse frequently but nursing him in the car while the car was in motion was not an option. I could not fathom having to stop every hour or so to nurse our son especially since we can normally make the trip with only three stops to get gas and use the bathroom. Since I was also working full time as a high school teacher, I had gotten to know my breast pump very well and I knew that the only solution to our in car nursing dilemma was my trusty double breast pump. We had no idea what to expect with the first fifteen hour drive with our three month old son. We left at five in the morning with the hope that our son would continue to sleep. He did in fact sleep for a good three hours before he woke up ravenous. I was prepared. I had been sitting in the back and had already pumped a full bottle of milk. For what seemed like hours I sat in the back seat pumping almost constantly trying to keep up with my son’s insatiable appetite, even though I knew that pumping is not as effective as nursing. After a few hours and what seemed like several bottles, our son fell asleep. That was the ongoing pattern: pump, feed, pump, feed, pump feed, nap. Occasionally I was unable to get enough milk fast enough for our son and I had to find ways to distract him until I could get some milk expressed. All in the trip went more smoothly than we thought was possible and our son has been a good little traveler ever since.
